The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is the responsible federal regulator for natural gas pipelines, has issued the report of its year long investigation of the San Bruno pipeline explosion and fire. That September 9, 2010 event, involving a pipeline located directly underneath a residential area, killed 8 members of the public, injured dozens…
When there is an enormous revenue stream at stake, actions taken to delay making any changes can produce a good return on investment. There is no doubt in my mind that people interested in prolonging fossil fuel dominance over the world economy have taken action to insert doubt in the public consciousness about the hazard…
An article titled Backlash Against Nuclear Power Hits the Bottom Line provides some interesting food for thought about the intricate connections associated with the world’s $6 trillion per year energy market. Here is the first quote I want you to ponder. The combination of earthquake, tsunami and human ineptitude produced a fiasco at Japan’s Fukushima…
A regular Atomic Insights reader sent me a link to a program produced by Al Jazeera English titled 101 East – Asia’s nuclear addiction that offers an interesting, if somewhat disturbing, point of view about nuclear energy development. About half of the program describes an effort to site a nuclear power plant in Indonesia and…
A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (2/2) (PL) by DobrySamarytanin Part 2 of A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash adds more stark images and historical footage that shows the importance of energy in the form of readily accessible oil, but it also illustrates some of the toxic hazards and armed conflicts that we have accepted…
During the next few days or weeks, I am going to try to develop an energy story that I hope will inspire action, not depression. I may not succeed. The first installment is the first half of a 90 minute documentary video titled A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash a 2007 documentary film that includes…
Proving the Principle provides some wonderful and inspiring stories about the days when the United States had a place where atomic tinkerers could explore new ideas and test those ideas with real reactors and real materials. It also provides some insights about the economically and politically motivated reasons that a place with those characteristics no…
Apparently, when his current season of “30 Rock” ends, Alec Baldwin is interested in running for office, perhaps to become the mayor of New York City. His thoughts about energy technology and energy policy are thus gaining a new level of importance. During a September 2, 2011 interview posted on Huffington Post, Alec Baldwin claimed…
Ray has released Chapter 6 of the Shoreham saga. Unlike some filmmakers, he has allowed plenty of time for even slow readers to fully read the front matter on this chapter, so either be patient or skip ahead to about minute 1:20 to watch the action start. The stars in this section include Harvey Wasserman,…
Guest article by Charles Forsberg. The below originally appeared on April 28, 2011 in a Bulletin of Atomic Scientists roundtable discussion titled “Is nuclear energy different from other energy sources?” Charles’s contribution was titled “Mutually assured energy independence.” It was so good that I contacted Charles and obtained his permission to share his thoughts with…
Does nuclear energy have a future, in light of the events at Fukushima? Fukushima Daiichi is the six-unit nuclear-power station on the northeast coast of Japan that was hit by a powerful tsunami, preceded by one of the strongest earthquakes on record. The extent of the damage is considerable: The three reactors that were operating…
One of the myths about nuclear energy is that it is unrelated to oil consumption because the US does not burn much oil to produce electricity. That may be true today, but it certainly was not true during the two decade long campaign against the Shoreham nuclear power station. As late as 1978, power plants…